The public consensus, at the time, was to let them all in, unabated. I nearly lost my job and became a complete social pariah, at the time, for suggesting that open borders was a bad idea. I thought it was nuts. They thought I was nuts.
And this, in one of the most right-wing regions of the EU. Absolutely _no one_ I knew thought it would cause any significant problems. No one.
They all also argued with me, that it was just this one group of refugees and then the flow would stop. They saw it as a temporary problem, not a permanent change to their demography. They also thought that they could examine each migrant and send any back, that they don't like, but that didn't happen.
It took years and years for the general public to change it's mind, and many still want open borders. The pace of legislative changes has been marching in lockstep with public opinion. Blaming this on Brussels doesn't make sense. National governments determine what Brussels says.
That is why the migrant crisis in the UK actually got _worse_ after Brexit, instead of better. The EU wasn't the cause of the crisis, so escaping it wasn't the solution.
Laeserin
npub1m4…jc2jl
2026-04-25 08:51:04 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…jlf5
Author Public Key
npub1m4ny6hjqzepn4rxknuq94c2gpqzr29ufkkw7ttcxyak7v43n6vvsajc2jlPublished at
2026-04-25 08:51:04 UTCEvent JSON
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